Free reading time. As students finish their books, they need to get me to sign I10: Books I Have Read This Year. They also need to complete this One-Pager for the book they read in January: One-Pager (use the first page only)

We discussed the next steps after completing a book. First, all students received Books I Have Read This Year (I-10). After finishing a book, the student will have a conversation with me or Ms. Ramirez and we will sign the sheet. Every student should aim to read at least five books before the end of the year.

Wordy Wednesday! Students worked on completing their V2 notes sheet in small groups.

After free reading, we examined some abstract designs from Matisse to see how they could be read as representative of moments in Durham history.

This could be seen as a commentary on how the tobacco industry impacted the viewpoint and the mindset of Durham over time, from plantation owners like Washington Duke to enslaved field hands to tenant farmers and factory workers.

2. Next, students designed their own abstract composition to illustrate the Durham topic they researched yesterday. They needed to illustrate their knowledge of the topic as well as portraying how it impacted Durham. This was done with cut construction paper and glue only on the second page of this handout: Research for Key Event in Durham. If you are at home and you don’t have construction paper, you can just draw it in the box. Just try to keep it abstract so you can be sure you’re illustrating underlying concepts, not just simple events.

HW: Finish the explanation of your image if you didn’t get it done in class.

We took a trip to the library to renew or check out books for free reading!

This week we will start reading A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Some of you will be familiar with this play from middle school, but we’ll be going into a lot of depth with it and coming at the interpretation from a different angle. I gave students a brief history of the play: how Hansberry’s family bought a house in a predominantly white neighborhood, were prevented from moving, and then brought the neighbors to court. The Hansberrys lost, they appealed, lost again, and finally the Supreme Court overturned the ruling. Growing up, Hansberry met many civil rights leaders as a result of this years-long legal proceeding. She based her play on this experience at it was a hit in 1959 when it debuted on Broadway. Because plays always speak to the moment in which they are performed, we began today by starting to think about parallel situations in Durham.

Students all received one of the topics listed here: Raisin research topics. Then, using some “quick and dirty” internet research (no citing sources, just getting background information), students filled out this sheet: Research for Key Event in Durham.